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BBC Monitoring began in 1939 to allow the British government to access foreign media and propaganda

BBC Monitoring - the service which listens to, analyses, and summarises news from 150 countries in 100 languages for the corporation - is moving from its home of 75 years. Staff who worked at its grand base at Caversham Park recall being first to hear and report on some of the most seismic moments in history.

The Chernobyl disaster

Chris Moseley had only been a monitor for 10 months when he said he became the "first person in the English speaking world" to hear about the world's worst nuclear disaster.

Listening to Swedish radio in April 1986, he heard reports of abnormal radiation coming from a nuclear plant in Lithuania.

"It then became evident that it was in Ukraine, that it was the Chernobyl reactor," said Mr Moseley, a monitor for 19 years.

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Thousands were evacuated from the neighbouring city of Pripyat after the explosion

It emerged one of four nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl power station had exploded, spewing a cloud of radioactive material that drifted into other parts of the then-USSR, including Russia and Belarus, and northern Europe.

Mr Moseley rushed to tell his supervisor about the unfolding events. His swift response meant the BBC reported the disaster two days before the Russians.

He says all monitors were trained to recognise significant news and to issue a "flash" typed up on carbon paper summarising what had been heard.

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Chris Moseley worked for BBC Monitoring for 19 years

Bet Tickner, a supervisor from 1973 to 2004, recalls having to "look up the name" after reports revealed it was Chernobyl, because "we had never heard of it".

She added: "[The reports] didn't say it was an atomic power station. It [came] sort of from nothing almost, and often the big news is like that.

"Sometimes you're waiting, expecting, big news like an election. But then there's some things that come out the blue and the great thing about being a monitor is that you are the first one to know that."

The fall of the Berlin Wall

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Crowds gathered as the Berlin Wall was torn down on 11 November 1989

For those in Monitoring's Eastern European teams, the fall of the Berlin Wall and communism was a "highlight", says Jonathan Dart, a monitor from 1987 to 1994.

On 9 November 1989, Mr Dart and colleague Kathy Mcaleer listened as the border between the east and west was torn down, bringing an end to the segregation enforced since 1961.